<table> </table> The Chiefs learned the hard way in last week&#8217;s loss to Buffalo that while consistently winning the turnover battle wasn&#8217;t helping them win games, it was at least keeping them close.</p><p>Then they were blown out for the first time in more than a month by the Bills when turnovers got away from them.</p><p>Lesson learned, the Chiefs won&#8217;t be the only team putting a premium on ball control Sunday when they play the Raiders in Oakland. Neither the 1-10 Chiefs nor the 3-8 Raiders are strong enough to overcome a significant turnover deficit.</p><p>&#8220;Turnovers lead to disaster,&#8221; Oakland coach Tom Cable said. &#8220;That&#8217;s true for any team, good team or bad. But when things aren&#8217;t going well, you&#8217;ve really got to make an effort to hold on to the ball when you&#8217;ve got it and take it away when they&#8217;ve got it.&#8221;</p><p>Even after failing to pry the ball away from the Bills last week, the Chiefs are still fifth in the league in takeaways with 21. That&#8217;s a remarkable statistic given their consistent inability to get any kind of pressure on the opposing quarterback.</p><p>The Chiefs have only six sacks, which puts them on pace for an NFL record low.</p><p>Oakland quarterback JaMarcus Russell was making only his third NFL start when the Raiders came to Kansas City in September. The Chiefs&#8217; inability to harass him into making any mistakes was a major failure in their 23-8 defeat.</p><p>Russell was only six of 17 for 55 yards that day, but he unloaded the ball safely away from any of the Chiefs any time he couldn&#8217;t find an open receiver.</p><p>&#8220;He does a good job of not forcing things,&#8221; Chiefs safety Jarrad Page said. &#8220;If he&#8217;s got an easier throw that&#8217;s safer, he&#8217;ll take it. They run the ball so much. They sit there and pound the ball about 40 times a game and then when they do hit you with those 12 passes, they do catch you off guard.&#8221;</p><p>Russell may not be playing all that well &#8212; the Raiders only last week snapped a three-game streak without an offensive touchdown &#8212; but he&#8217;s at least not causing their downfall. Most young quarterbacks are prone to turnovers, but Russell has only four.</p><p>&#8220;If you look at his last three weeks, he has quietly started to improve,&#8221; Cable said. &#8220;He has done a good job of managing the game all year, and he&#8217;s done a good job of taking care of the football all year. These last three weeks, he&#8217;s done a lot better in terms of completion percentage, decision-making, timing and accuracy &#8212; he&#8217;s really picked it up.&#8221;</p><p>Chiefs quarterback Tyler Thigpen had done a great job of protecting the ball in the Chiefs&#8217; previous four games. His only interception came on a desperation pass in the final moments of the loss to New Orleans.</p><p>The Chiefs are eager to see how he responds to his two-interception, one-fumble game against the Bills.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone has games where they struggle a little bit,&#8221; Oakland cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. &#8220;He might have just had one of those games. Maybe they gave him a couple of different looks that he hasn&#8217;t seen. The first time he went in there was against us, and he&#8217;s gotten better with his decisions and a little smarter about where to throw the ball and where to put the ball.&#8221;</p><p>Thigpen received the first extended playing time of his career during the earlier game against the Raiders and had a miserable game. Oakland intercepted one of his passes and dropped two others.</p><p>&#8220;(The Raiders) do a great job of covering,&#8221; Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. &#8220;They&#8217;re built for that. They&#8217;ve got fast corners and fast linebackers and they can play you man-to-man. They&#8217;ve got a good pass rush. They can rush with four guys and get to the quarterback.</p><p>&#8220;So he&#8217;s going to have to be very accurate with the football because they do a very good job of covering guys. If you were at our last game, that&#8217;s what they did to us then. We didn&#8217;t move the ball a whole lot.&#8221;